The Meeting

Tomorrow is an important day! The customer team finally agreed to visit us for a quick demo of the new solution I have been pitching to them. I already completed multiple rounds of discussions and negotiations with their team, and it took me many months of convincing to agree for this in-person meeting. While zoom calls and online interactions have become the norm from the past two years, to get a confirmed deal required meeting face-to-face. My presentation deck for the meeting is incomplete, and I may need to pull an all-nighter to have it in fine shape before 9 AM tomorrow.

The roads are completely empty; generally, the traffic is sparse at 8 AM but there is absolutely no one on the roads today. Even last year during complete lockdown there were still police, ambulances and random people sneaking onto the by-lanes. But today feels like the entire humankind have deserted the globe. With my head throbbing and my heart thudding louder than ever, I drove into the office parking lot. No other vehicles, not even those which are generally left overnight by lazy colleagues.

Assuming that I arrived earlier than everyone else, in my hurry for the meeting, I proceeded to the food court. This one is completely empty, there are no caterers, no cleaning staff, not even the chairs and tables that would be neatly stacked every morning before the service started. I only read about pin-drop-silence earlier, but the silence now is deafening. I ignored my grumbling stomach and ran to my cubicle now.

The security person who would greet me every morning with a smile is missing from his designated seat; when I peeped in, all lights are switched off in our bay, all the window blinds are closed. There is just a faint ray of light at one corner. It is 8:45 AM now and I did not have any time to waste before the meeting started. I opened my laptop bag to find my laptop had no alphabets on the keys. I tried to wipe the keys in an attempt to get rid of any dust that hid the keys below. I am now shouting for help, for anyone who can come over and get this machine started.

I am shouting and shouting but my voice is stuck inside me, I am unable to hear my voice myself. This cannot be true, this is my best chance to grab the promotion I have been eyeing for the past two years. I cannot fail now. I cannot.

I woke up with sweat forming on my forehead, to realize I am staring at my bedroom window. Thank God this is only a bad dream! Yes, it was raining heavily in the middle of December, unexpected cyclone you see; the clouds were very dark and the weather gloomy. My alarm did not ring today morning and since my dear Sun seems to have taken a day off and did not peep through my window blinds, here I am staring at my wall clock at 11 AM. Hope I can still report to my job and not be shown the door for missing such an important meeting.

This post is a part of Blogchatter Blog Hop

The writing prompt is ‘When my alarm didn’t ring this morning’